Wow factor decor impact

It’s entirely possible that this is not even close to the fault of the developers; I would believe that it was just an accidental bit of visual theme, and all it was ever meant to be was a waystation for Karazhan. But boy, every time I run through here I’m reminded of the way it lit my imagination on fire. There’s so much to be done there with a locale that bleeds the meaning from everything contained therein, a different angle from the violent atavism of demonic forces or the slobbering madness of the Old Gods. And the fact that it’s never been used for much beyond “the place where Karazhan is” feels like a shame. … [Read more...] about WoW Factor: World of Warcraft’s most underused zones in Classic

See, Blizzard’s decision to stop offering numbers in 2015 was born out of cold business sense. The falling numbers (and they were falling) made the game look as if it was doing worse, which it was in terms of subscribers, but in terms of revenue it was doing just fine. Sure, it was doing fine by finding ways to get more money out of fewer players, but from a business standpoint that doesn’t actually matter too much. Whether you make $1,000 by charging 500 people $2 each or by charging 100 people $10 each, you still made $1,000. So no more numbers, revenue looks fine, and everything’s great! … [Read more...] about WoW Factor: The great Superdata fall-off

All of this is compounded by the fact that designed response basically starts and stops with a shrug and a “well, what can we do about this now?” There’s the sense that the designers don’t see this as a real problem, that while players are upset you can’t revise the system now. In fact, the closest thing we’ve seen to revisions are the announcement that you should have all of the traits on Azerite armor unlocked when you get new pieces, a move that seems to make leveling the dang necklace up even more pointless. … [Read more...] about WoW Factor: Why people are mad at Battle for Azeroth, part two: The Heart of Azeroth

I recognize that saying this is the equivalent of mentioning to a wrestling fan that it’s all fake (i.e., a bit of a “no duh”), but there’s a finite amount of stuff in Classic. If you’re thinking that we can always just move on to the next tier of content, just wait for the last point. And for the first time in, well, forever, Classic seems to be generating a lot of positive buzz for the game in a way that the current expansion definitely isn’t doing. … [Read more...] about WoW Factor: Three thoughts on the latest WoW Classic stress test

This is pretty bad design. Success in this fight was not determined by developing a strategy or dealing with mechanics, but instead by whether or not you had gotten enough gear to compensate for the poison damage. It was, in many ways, a poster child for a specific sort of gameplay. You slapped on your resist gear for that fight, and then you went back to the gear you would actually use to play as soon as it was over. It was just pointless busy work that only mattered because you were told it does for this raid tier. … [Read more...] about WoW Factor: We’re all farming Nature Resistance gear now